Discus star Lally qualifies for Rio Olympics

Ollie Berry

Discus star Jade Lally has booked her place on the plane to Rio having qualified for her first Olympics.

The Horsham and Crawley based athlete won the British Championships in Birmingham at the weekend to secure her spot on Team GB.

The 29-year-old threw 59.15m to win the event in which she needed a minimum of a top-two finish to book a place to Brazil.

Lally, a personal trainer at Horsham Pavilions and Broadbrigde Heath Leisure Centre, had already done half of the hard work for a place, reaching the qualifying distance of 61m in February overseas in New Zealand and Australia, where she threw British records of 64.22m and 65.10.

The athlete missed out of the London 2012 Olympics as she failed to reach the A standard to qualifying and subsequently was not selected.

She went on to win a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014.

Full story in this week’s paper.

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